At the Beginning With You [Harmione]

20. Subtle Love

Life is a road
And I want to keep going
Love is a river

I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road
Now and forever
Wonderful journey

I'll be there when the world stops turning
I'll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

-- 'At the Beginning' by Richard Marx and Donna Lewis from the movie Anastasia

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A blue-haired Teddy stared at his godfather with a curious expression as the two of them walked down the halls of Hogwarts to Hermione's room. It was as though Teddy was trying to figure out why his godfather hadn't been in a good mood in the past two weeks, or why he hadn't spent as much time with Hermione in the past two weeks as he usually did. Harry's bad mood had been infectious; Teddy's hair hadn't been orange since that day they left Grimmauld Place. When the two of them reached Hermione's door, Harry knocked, and Teddy also reached over and knocked, but not as hard as Harry or in any kind of rhythm.

"It's open!" Hermione called from the other side. Harry opened the door and came in.

"Do you normally just tell people to come right in when you're here?" he asked Hermione, who hadn't come into the living room yet. Hermione's bedroom door opened and she came out of her room. She smiled.

"No, but I heard Teddy's knock, so I knew who it was." Harry froze as he took in Hermione's appearance. She looked beautiful. She was wearing a forest green ball gown, with cap sleeves made of green netting with a gold floral print on them, and the same gold print was along the hem of the full skirt. Hermione's hair was smooth and sleek again, but it was twisted up into a bunch of curls at the back of her head. On the right side of her head was a jeweled gold comb. She wore tiny dangling gold earrings with a matching necklace. Harry felt a slight pang of jealousy when he wished at that moment that he was the one who was taking her to the dance instead of Smyth. Hermione noticed Harry taking in her appearance and nervously smiled. She spun around for him and when she faced him again she gave him an apprehensive look.

"Well? What do you think? Too much? Not enough?"

"No, you're perfect. You look beautiful." Hermione blushed.

"Oh, Harry—" she said, embarrassingly trying to brush his compliment off.

"No, I'm serious, Hermione. And Smyth's a damn fool if he doesn't think so and realize how lucky he is to have you as his date for this ball thing." Hermione's blush deepened on her cheeks.

"Thank you, Harry. That's sweet of you to say so."

"Well, I mean it." Hermione smiled and closed the distance between her and Harry. Placing a hand on his back, the other on Teddy's back, she leaned forward and kissed Harry's cheek.

"I know. And thank you." She then kissed Teddy's cheek, who, sensing things were getting better because this was the first time his caretakers had been in the same room in two weeks, turned his hair orange. Hermione laughed at the baby and grinned at Harry, who was still stony faced, the same mood he'd been in for two weeks. Hermione had noticed it, but then she hadn't had a good opportunity to talk with Harry about it, because it seemed like Harry had been avoiding her. Her smile fell from her face and she seized the opportunity then to say something.

"Harry, what's the matter?"

"Nothing," he said in an unconvincing tone that didn't have Hermione fooled for a minute. She gave him an annoyed look in return.

"Don't lie, Harry. I can tell something's been bothering you these past few weeks. What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," Harry lied again. Hermione sighed loudly and glared at Harry.